Paper And Pencil Games
Below are several paper and pencil games.
A parent can always use some good ideas to keep the kids busy in car rides or while waiting at appointments. Here are some games that can be done with just paper and pencil.
Monsters
Take a plain piece of paper and fold it into fours lengthwise. The first player draws a head on the top quarter of the paper. Fold the paper so that player 2 cannot see it.
The second player creates the neck, shoulders and arms on the second quarter. Fold the paper to the third quarter.
Player 1 draws the midsection and so on.
When finished, unfold the paper and check out your monster.
If you would like a printable sheet, click here.
Pipes
Rules: Each player chooses either the red dots or the black dots to play. The players take turns moving by connecting two dots.
A player can only connect dots that are adjacent horizontally or vertically and also only dots of his own color.
No move may draw across another move.
To win,a player must make a continuous connection from one side of the board to the other in the long direction for his color of dots.
Click here to view a pdf file for printing.
Sprouts
Sprouts starts with three (or more) dots on a piece of paper. The rules are as follows:
The players take turns moving.
A move has two parts: drawing a line and making a new dot.
The line must go from a dot to a dot so that it does not cross another line and so that once the line is drawn, no dot has more then three lines coming out of it. Be sure to circle the used-up dots.
The new dot goes on the line the player just drew (this means it starts with two lines coming out of it).
The winner is the last player to move.
A line can go from a dot to itself as long as you don't break the "three lines" rule.
The strategy in sprouts lies in using your lines to divide the paper up into parts that trap dots. It is very hard to think through all the ways this came can come out because of the many different ways it can divide up the paper. If the three dot game gets too easy for you, start with more dots. This game is a good tool for building your sense of spatial perception on flat surfaces.
Word Puzzle Square
Items needed:
- A pencil per player
- Paper per player
Each of the players is given a piece of paper on which he draws nine squares, 3 x 3. They take turns at calling out a letter, and each player must put the letter in any one of his nine squares. As the letter is called, it can be put down only once, but the same letter may be called more than once. The object of the game is to place the letters so they will make as many three-letter words vertically and horizontally as possible.